Worth a Look 1.21.13

A novelization of the acclaimed film that broke the box office top ten even in limited release, October Baby tells the inspiring story of college student Hannah whose increasing anxiety and sudden collapse point to the surprising circumstances of her birth. Hannah soon learns from her parents she was adopted and is the survivor of a failed abortion attempt.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision not only awakened Southern Baptists eventually to the gruesome reality of abortion but helped power what came to be known as their convention’s Conservative Resurgence, two longtime observers say.

I recently asked a few hundred laypersons to write down what they desired of a pastor. Their responses were open-ended, and there was no limitation on the number of items they could list. Though my approach was not scientific, these laypersons did represent over sixty churches. Here are their top ten responses in order of frequency.

Unless you have a particular reason for preferring the slower comma, however, comma, not only may you begin a sentence with but: you really should do it. I tell my students this all the time. But they are slow to turn from their old ways, the reprobates.